China approves 5 million Xbox One consoles can be sold for September 23 launch

Microsoft's Xbox One partner in China, BesTV, revealed that the Chinese government has approved of the sale of 5 million units of the game console ahead of the Xbox One's official launch in that country on September 23.

The number paves the way for Microsoft to sell a bunch of Xbox Ones in China, which lifted a long running sales ban on all Western game consoles earlier this year that had lasted for 13 years. Sony has also announced plans to sell the rival PlayStation 4 in China, but so far has not announced a specific launch date.

When the Xbox One does go on sale in China, it will have a price of 3,699 RMB ($600) and will come with free access to Xbox Live Gold through March 2015, along with the game's Powerstar Golf and Neverwinter Online with a Special Edition Pack. Microsoft will launch the Xbox One in over 25 more markets around the world through the month of September.

What do you think about the prospects for the Xbox One's sales in China?

Again the Chinese don't understand capitolism. They want a command economy and limiting the number of boxes sold will only open up the black market. Is it true the MS had to find a state approved company the produce them also?

Most probably there are only 5 million available government agents in the datacenter dedicated to spy on xbox users, so they can allow only that much people being observed. Remember, there are 1.35 billions (yes, more than 1 billion) people living in that communist country. Five million people working for the tyrant to observe other people is actually not that unrealistic number, its less than 0,3% of the population.

Why does it matter? No, it's armenia; another crap country, although the problem here isn't with government control but with absurdly low incomes and awfully high prices; and rampant corruption, mafia, etc.

25 more countries will make a big difference. Sony selling 10 mil vs 4mil for the xb1 is directly attributed to the lower original price and # of countries it was available for. 45 countries vs 15 for the Xbox. Sony ponies celebrating like they won the "console war" 10 months in. Seriously. If the original price for the xb1 was $399 and sold in the same # of countries, the gap in sales would be nil. Bring on the games!

The sales gap would always have been there. Microsoft ensured that with their catastrophic marketing campaign in the lead up to release, their constant u-turns on strategy, & on the fact that the PS4 is the more powerful games machine...
Microsoft just didn't get the strategy right - and it'll take a hell of a lot to get public sentiment back on side.

More powerful argument is silly when we're comparing PS4 to X1. They're almost identical and have closer specs than the ps3 and Xbox 360. Most games looked identical last Gen too- why expect anything different? Xbox One dev kits shipped late with unoptimized code and Kinect mandatory. Things seem to be sorted out now. Most games coming out in the future will look and play identically. Take Diablo III. 1080p and 60 fps on both- the X1 version drops maybe 4 frames in hectic scenes. Saying a console is more powerful is significant only if your comparing the Wii U to X1/PS4 where the difference is much more profound. If graphics are so important, buy a PC.

So you concede that the Xbox One was shipped in an unoptimised state that exacerbated the perceived performance gap? & you also concede that a big selling point of the One (Kinect) was in fact part of the reason why there was a performance difference....
Sounds to me like you just backed up my reasons as to why the One hasn't done particularly well so far...
Microsoft didn't work out their strategy ahead of time - trying to turn a ship that's already in full motion is pretty difficult. Sony made much better strategy calls - and that is why they are selling better...

Most tech products ship as a work in progress. Microsoft's communications were poor but many now realize that their strategy was more forward thinking. Eventually, I believe that they will slowly swing back to the original vision and implement those features iteratively. It will probably be better than it would have been without community feedback and support. There was so much misinformation spread around that there are still misconceptions. I'm sure that the Xbox team would like to take some things back but they can't. But they have built an excellent product that is loved by millions. As for sales, according to NPD, the sales differential in the US for 2014 is around 400,000 consoles. That isn't a very substantial delta. It could easily swing one way or the other. When viewed on the whole, the sales performance for PS4 looks more substantial. When that data is broken down to different regions beyond the staggered launch window, I think we would see a different picture. More than likely, sales are very similar in many areas where both consoles are sold. I could see the PS4 edging out the Xbox One in many of those but it isn't enough to account for the total sales difference. Most of the difference is likely to be found in areas where the PS4 is sold and the Xbox One isn't. Either way, I'm glad that Sony has had a successful launch. I believe that the same is true for the Xbox One. As a consumer and an owner of an Xbox One, I'm very happy with it. They have alot of really smart people in Redmond that do not like to play second fiddle. No matter what, they will continue to push for the first chair. As consumers, all of us will benefit from the competition.

From my experiences in China, they couldn't price the Xbox low enough for the masses, however there are alot of people who have more money than they know what to do with. Alot of the Xboxes will be bought simply as a status symbol. Don't be surprised for them to be sold out very quickly.

There is a huge middle class population in China. Many of the better off Chinese travel to America and Europe simply to spend money as popular consumer goods are cheaper outside of China. It is fashionable there to simple shop till you drop so I think $600 is a good price for that demographic.

Japan hasn't been the market driver for console sales in a while. While important, they are no longer the make or break. That being said, I do wish there was a higher pick up rate for Xbox in Japan, to see more imaginative and varied games hot the console, especially through indie releases. The market outside Japan seems to have stagnated with FPS games.

The Chinese government tries to block a lot of American content, but the actual people LOVES American stuff. It's so weird when you're there. Mark my words, the Xbox will sell like crazy! Also the price isn't high. That's how much my Sony Xperia cost last year.

Xbox isn't selling that well worldwide and there's no prospects of that being turned around since the market for people who wanted a console had been filled with Sony for the last year. Microsoft took too long and now it's too little to late. They'll still but only to those who are already into Xbox.